cantore, counting-house, office; ‘A Dutchman’s money i’ th’ Cantore’, Butler, Abuse of human learning (Remains i. 211). Du. kantoor, F. comptoir, a counter.
cantred, a hundred; a district containing 100 townships. Spenser, View of Ireland, Globe ed., p. 676, col. 1. Peele, Edw. I, ed. Dyce, 398. Wel. cantref, a cantred; cant, a hundred + tref, a town. See Ducange (s.v. Cantredus).
canvas: phr. to receive the canvas, to get the sack; i.e. to be dismissed. Shirley, The Brothers, ii. 1 (Luys); give the canvas, to dismiss, Hyde Park, i. 1 (end).
canvasado, a night attack by soldiers. Merry Devil, i. 1. 44. App. a perverted form of [camisado], q.v.; due to confusion with canvass, vb., to knock about, to assault (NED.).
cap, to arrest. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, iii. 2 (Host). From. L. capias, the name of a writ; writ of capias, a writ of arrest.
cap a-huff, to set, to cock one’s cap or hat, to put on a swaggering appearance. Greene, James IV, iv. 4. 13. See [huff-cap].
cap of maintenance, a kind of hat or cap worn as a symbol of official dignity, or carried before a sovereign or a high dignitary in processions. In the 17th cent. and later it is mentioned chiefly as borne, together with the sword, before the Lord Mayor, and before the Sovereign at his coronation. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 1; A Woman never vext, i. 1 (Stephen). See NED. (s.v. Maintenance).
capadochio, a prison. Puritan Widow, i. 3. 56; ‘in Caperdochy, i’ tha gaol’, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 72; spelt Capperdochy, id. p. 86. App. for Cappadocia (a bit of university slang).
cap-case, a bandbox, cover, basket. Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 4 (De F.); a small travelling-bag, Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 3 (Philogano).
caper, a privateer, cruiser. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, ii. 1 (Scapin). Du. kaper, a privateer (Sewel, ed. 1766).